Don’t Move to Canada
We shall overcome. It’s not too late.
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Don’t Move to Canada” by Vicki Elson and Anand Nayak. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
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(544 words)
This is a song from 2017. There had been an election in the U.S. the year before, and the country elected Donald Trump. Many people were concerned that, because he had no experience in law or governing any state, he would not be a president that people could trust to lead the country in a safe and responsible way. Some people even thought about leaving the country.
The song begs those people to stay in the U.S.
Don’t move to Canada / Don’t move to France
Stay here and fight / Stay here and dance
Don’t move to Canada / That won’t fix a thing
Stay here and fight / Stay here and sing
Don’t move to Iceland / Or the Antarctic zone
For love to trump hate / We need you at home
Don’t move to Wellington / Sydney, Bombay
Stay here and fight / Don’t go away
To go off the deep end or to come unglued both have similar meanings: to suddenly show strong emotions, go mad, feel emotionally strained. The lyrics are encouraging people to breathe deeply and accept, but not necessarily agree with, the situation.
Don’t go off the deep end / Don’t come unglued
Take a breath, and abide / We need you here, dude*
Don’t move to the moon / Stay, persevere
Don’t leave this dimension / We need you here
People in the U.S. often look to Canada as the ideal place to live because Canadians don’t have as many problems with crime and the government pays for health care. They also have some excellent musicians. The lyrics list well-known Canadian singer-songwriters: Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who is also an advocate for the environment and social justice, and k d lang, who is also an LGBTQ+ advocate and animal rights activist.
Up there in Canada / They don’t lock their doors
They have socialized medicine / And they don’t start wars
They gave us Joni Mitchell / Neil Young, k d lang
They gave us Leonard Cohen / Hallelujah he sang
Leonard Cohen was a poet and novelist as well as a singer-songwriter whose music is known around the world.
But like any other place on our tiny Earth, Canada has its own problems. Tar sands are areas of oil mixed with sand clay and water. Getting the oil out can harm the environment. It can damage forests, pollute water, and release greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Slick profiteers refers to people who make a lot of money unfairly from a crisis or when there isn’t enough of something. For example, a profiteer might buy as much of a much-needed product as they can and then sell it at a higher price.
But they’ve got their problems / Just like we have here
Tar sands and pipelines / And slick profiteers
Permafrost melting / Glaciers shrinking
Carbon escaping / Polar bears sinking
Canada also has people who are not honest and who don’t like people of certain ethnic groups or nationalities, just like other countries do.
So don’t move to Canada / Or anywhere
The problems you’re running from / Will follow you there
Pollution and poverty / Corruption and hate
We shall overcome / It’s not too late
We shall overcome is the belief that, if we stand together and keep trying, we can deal with the challenges we face and we can achieve positive change.
Question
Would you ever consider moving to another country?
Vocabulary
beg 懇願する
to trump 何かより良いことを言ったり行ったりして（誰かまたは何かに）勝つ (to play your trump card 切り札を切る)
emotionally strained 精神的に緊張する
abide 我慢する
*Dude is an informal word that means friend, buddy, pal, chum
persevere 忍耐する
dimension 次元
ideal 理想
advocate 擁護する
social justice 社会正義
socialized medicine 社会主義医療
profiteer 不当利得者
permafrost 永久凍土
glacier 氷河
corruption 腐敗
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I hadn’t heard this song! I grew up in Canada in the 70s and 80s with many “draft dodgers” as teachers and later university professors. It’s an age-old temptation I guess. After Brexit in the UK in 2016 I got frustrated with all the Americans and Canadians talking about going “home”. Stay and fight, I told them! We often think of migration as an economic or political necessity. But it can also be a political cop-out.
Ahh Louise, I think few countries in the world don't have problems in 2024, which is quite worrying when by now, after all we have learned, we should be cruising... happy on our land, with our people and our leaders...
My husband and I often wonder (or at least discuss) where we would go if we had to move from France, hopefully it will never be a real question though because we don't know, because everywhere has its problems!